Talk:Sperrbrecher

A fact from Sperrbrecher appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 2 December 2010 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that British spies helped sink some German minesweepers of the Sperrbrecher type, through determining how to adjust the fuses on magnetic mines?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2010/December.

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Infobox[edit]

I have added an Infobox as required. As for information to add to the Infobox, someone else will need to be willing to take the time to do add extra information into it. Hope the start of an Infobox helps. Adamdaley (talk) 11:58, 25 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Translation[edit]

A Sperrbrecher (German: Pathfinder). Really? Pathfinder find pathes but Sperrbrecher break fences. But I'm not German-English translator. Ciacho5 (talk) 20:02, 25 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's what the sources I've used all translate "Sperrbrecher" as. I'm assuming it's a non-literal translation, in that case - both "pathfinder" and "fencebreaker" would seem to be appropriate names for the role of this type of ship! - The Bushranger _{Return fire}^{Flank speed} 20:43, 25 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I've changed the "translation". Now I see you say it's called pathfinder in the literature. Hmm... It's for sure not a translation at all, maybe this ships where called so by the British. But to say it means pathfinder in German is certainly not correct. Pathfinder would be Pfadfinder. Sperre means blockade, brechen means break. 217.235.16.242 (talk) 16:41, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

As I said, it's clearly a colloquial translation. Not a single source uses "fencebreaker" or "blockade breaker", they explicitly say "Sperrbrecher, meaning Pathinder". - The Bushranger _{Return fire}^{Flank speed} 18:42, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

I get the feeling this could run and run. I agree that "pathfinder" perfectly dscribes the function of these ships, while "blockade breaker" is plain confusing (they certainly weren't used as blockade runners, which the latter implies) but I foresee a steady procession of German-speakers correcting this if it stays as it is.

Is it worth putting 'literally "blockade breaker", but informally translated/described as "pathfinder" ', and whacking in a source for the latter? Maybe that'd head off the trouble...Xyl 54 (talk) 18:56, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

PS is that translation correct, BTW? I had always assumed the name translated as "trail breaker", which would describe the function. Xyl 54 (talk) 19:01, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

[1] I support the wording 'literally "barrier breaker", but called pathfinder'. 217.235.16.242 (talk) 20:06, 2 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Idiomatically "trail breaker" would seem appropriate in context. 194.74.62.195 (talk) 10:02, 12 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Not to reopen an old discussion, but in the German Navy official website, this word is translated not only as "Pathfinder" but also as "Pathmaker", the latter is quite literally the role of this type of ship. So I'm going to add also this 3rd translation to the lead section. Regards, DPdH (talk) 14:40, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]

...except that is emphatically not the "German Navy official website". "This site is not affiliated to the German Navy (Deutsche Marine)." (And if the German Navy official website looked like that site (great as it is) I'd really wonder about them!) - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 20:47, 5 May 2014 (UTC)[reply]